Social networking services like Facebook are dangerous. You lose your privacy and open yourself to a number of risks.

For example, two masked robbers robbed the wrong home, hours after a teenager posted a photo on Facebook of a large pile of her grandmother’s savings.

Police in New South Wales, Australia, said that the men, armed with a club and a knife, struck at the home of the 17-year-old’s mother in the country town of Bundanoon on Thursday night, but were told the daughter no longer lived there.

The bandits searched the house and took a small amount of cash as well as other property before leaving. No one was injured.

Police said that earlier in the day the girl had posted a picture on her Facebook page of a “large sum of cash” she had helped count at her 72-year-old grandmother’s home in Sydney, 75 miles north-east of Bundanoon.

No matter how “cool” or convenient Facebook is, it is always important to keep a close watch on its security implications. Each of these services comes with its own set of security concerns which can put your information
systems and/or personal data at risk. (the incident above is one such example)

For example, you have posted an update on your Facebook profile say: “Looking forward to the family holiday next week at the beach house.” Although these might seem relatively harmless, the third bullet point could raise some concern. You have just told all your friends, as well as all their friends, that you will be away from home for a full week. This is comparable to putting a sign on the main road that shouts “Empty House” for passers-by to see. Even if you have a burglar alarm or neighbors keeping an occasional eye on the home, you still don’t want to create the temptation for strangers (Friends of Friends) to consider helping themselves to the contents of your house.

This is just one of the risks you might encounter when using Facebook, and this is one to the reasons why I prefer to steer away from social networking services. You rarely know or meet your “friends”, and this exposes you to unacceptable risks to your personal safety! Optimism aside, the world is full of mean-spirited people who would want to exploit and harm you. Be careful!